"Timing is everything."
For 10 years, Sir Sanju Ganglani’s digital marketing agency gang&lani media, AskUsForAnything.com, has been serving the global business community with a presence in North America, Europe, and Africa. He specializes in serving B2B and B2C clients requiring assistance in marketing: traditional and digital with a primary focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media, Design & Branding, Print, and Website Development.
Sir Sanju has worked with companies from single-person entrepreneurs to fortune 500 companies and he tailors packages to meet the needs of every client. All corporations have the challenge of not only worrying about their daily operations but how they will specifically market their products or services to their clients and ensure ROI while retaining a great client experience.
Being an entrepreneur most of his career, Sanju understands what level of dedication and support is necessary to help make a business successful. His wife and partner Saliena, holds both an MBA and MHA, and is an integral resource, providing her expertise in healthcare marketing, finance, and client services.
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Table of Contents
Before we begin, our readers are interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to be where you are today or was it something you were led to? Share with us your journey.
Sir Sanju Ganglani: I started my journey as an entrepreneur in my teens and after that entered the corporate world to explore my passions. While there I realized that though I was formally educated as a Systems Analyst, Marketing was what I truly enjoyed, and decided to start my own marketing agency just over 10 years ago.
Since then, I’ve never looked back and I think it was a mix of both always wanting to be here, and being led here through other journeys I took.
Tell us a bit about your current focus. What is the most important thing that you’re working on and how do you plan on doing it?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: Right now, my biggest focus is helping as many businesses and budding entrepreneurs recover from the past 19 months. I plan on continuing this focus by providing free consulting and fair prices to help the community bounce back.
Some argue that punctuality is a strength. Others say punctuality is a weakness. How do you feel about it, please explain.
Sir Sanju Ganglani: Since young, I’ve always been aware of other people’s time. Punctuality is a superhero strength in my opinion. To build enough discipline to ensure you are always on time is a way of showing others that you not only respect their time but yours as well. I believe that not being punctual is a weakness as it puts you at a disadvantage and conveys that you just aren’t ready for the conversation. Of course, there are situations that truly arise, but as long as it’s not a habit, it’s understandable.
How important is having good timing in your line of work and in the industry that your organization operates in?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: Timing is everything. Missing deadlines means missing opportunities, launches, and ultimately sales that can make a difference to your client’s bottom line. Not only that, but bad timing also has a domino effect on all other areas attached to your piece being completed and is unfair to others that may be involved and were ready to maximize that timing.
Founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, states “Timing is everything in life, and it’s particularly crucial in entrepreneurship. People often equate success with luck, but it usually comes down to impeccable (and carefully mapped out) timing”. Do you agree with this statement? Please answer in as much detail as necessary.
Sir Sanju Ganglani: I fully agree with this statement, especially in today’s world where things move so quickly.
Hitting timelines to execute and launch a campaign for example can make or break a business. Taking advantage of timing is also what entrepreneurs do to maximize and see ROI on a goal. But I would add to that statement, that yes timing is important, but recognizing and having the foresight to see that opportunity is the first step to mapping out the steps to take advantage of that opportunity.
As a leader/entrepreneur/CEO, how do you decide when to put the pedal to the metal and when to take a break? How do you time the key moments in your career?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: You time the moments in your career by being aware of what is happening – in world news, the economy, and even right down to your community and that is what helps decide when to put the pedal to the metal or take a break. As well leveraging data that is available speaking to the trends that line up with your goals is key to ensuring you aren’t going left when you should be going right.
Branson also states “If you’re starting to feel like you’re just going through the motions and losing sight of why you started, it might be time to take a break”. But how do you decide when to take a break?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: I believe that Branson hit the nail on the head. When you become almost zombie-like in your routine, or you are just going through the motions to move things off your list it is time to take a break. If you aren’t innovating or lose that passion for finding new ways to grow, it’s usually a sign that you are burning out – and that’s ok. What is key here is understanding that a break could be as simple as sitting in a cafe and people watching or as extravagant as a trip to a new place, there is no right answer.
“Timing can be everything when starting up. It can be the difference between building a thriving business and not” How has good timing helped you achieve success in your career or business? Are there any particular examples from your career that you would like to share?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: Good timing has helped me achieve success in my career and business by helping me understand trends and ensuring I was able to take advantage of them while they were still relevant. One of them being starting gang&lani media at a time that there was a gap in the market for full-service marketing agencies.
“When you’re thinking of starting up, ask yourself: ‘Is the community I want to serve ready for this idea?’ It could make all the difference!” Would you like to add anything to this piece of advice for all the aspiring entrepreneurs?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: I think understanding that no matter how much you may believe your product or service, in its current form, is what people want, you must be willing and able to pivot that idea to fit what the market demands. All successful entrepreneurs and business owners have had to change their offering, target market, or method of reaching the market at one point or another, if not you face extinction by a competitor that is willing to do what it takes to serve the community.
COVID forced many businesses to adapt fast, some did so successfully, others failed, it was a lot due to good or poor timing. What are some of the big lessons you’ve learned during the pandemic?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: COVID-19 changed my life and my business literally overnight. We went from consistent workflow and a full office, to clients being hesitant to pursue their marketing efforts while the whole country was on lockdown and staff that, while they were always welcome to, now had to work from home.
It has taken solid strategizing to ensure that we helped our clients retain their investments thus far and keeping our integrity intact by advising where to cut spending where it was not going to have any effect on sales and to help them retain, if not add to, investments in areas such as SEO to take advantage of competitors dropping their investments. This allowed our clients to gain traction in traditionally very expensive or difficult keywords, and get a head start on the market as businesses reopened.
Interestingly enough, during this time, we gained new clients looking for brand refreshes and websites, as well as aspiring entrepreneurs that either had hit a plateau or were looking to start new ventures to supplement loss of income via their day jobs. It also allowed us to forge relationships with Wix and HubSpot to give our clients more options when it came to growth and lead generation.
There are countless interesting stories as we grew and learned, but this is probably the most relevant to today’s atmosphere. It has definitely been an interesting pivot, but one that made us stronger.
Your insight has been incredibly valuable and our readers thank you for your generosity. We do have a couple of other bold questions to ask. What fictional world would you want to start a business in and what would you sell?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: I would start a business in Jurassic Park – probably running shoes so the women wouldn’t have to run from T-Rex in heels!
Before we finish things off, we would love to know, when you have some time away from business, what is one hobby that you wish you could spend more time on?
Sir Sanju Ganglani: The one hobby I wish I could spend more time on is writing, I’m not a novelist or anything by any means, but it’s fun jotting down thoughts and notes to create pieces that inspire and motivate.
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Sir Sanju Ganglani for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Sir Sanju Ganglani or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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